Technology as an Aid in Home Oral Care
Good oral hygiene is a prerequisite for good health, both in the mouth area and in terms of overall condition. To make it more effective and easier, it is now possible to use technologically advanced tools that allow users to achieve and maintain high hygiene standards in regular daily care.
Dental Plaque and Its Associated Challenges in Oral Hygiene
Dental caries and gum inflammation are the most widespread human infectious diseases in the world. Their common cause is dental plaque, a biofilm – an organized structure containing various bacterial strains and their products, whose properties ensure the biofilm's adherence to the substrate and provide bacteria with favorable growth conditions. Plaque begins to form practically immediately after a clean surface of a tooth or mucosa comes into contact with the non-sterile environment of the oral cavity, and it takes approximately 48 hours for dental plaque to fully “mature.” Fully “matured” plaque has a high cariogenic potential and causes inflammatory changes in the gingiva. However, even “younger” plaque contains pathogens potentially dangerous to its host.
Due to its structure, the layer of dental plaque is difficult to disrupt by chemical means of oral hygiene. Dental plaque can only be fully removed mechanically – by cleaning. Given that even with very thorough cleaning, 100% removal of all plaque is not achieved, and thus some of its islands can continue to develop into mature plaque, it is essential to perform oral hygiene more frequently than just once every 48 hours to prevent plaque-associated oral diseases.
Home Oral Hygiene as a Challenge
Although it is possible to reach a state where neither soft nor hard tissues of the oral cavity are threatened and irritated by dental plaque using purely mechanical means of oral hygiene with proper technique, for many people in everyday life, achieving such a state is very challenging or even impossible. The reasons can be entirely objective, such as the individual's movement or mental limitations, but also subjective, due to a lack of time for home care or unwillingness to engage in this activity. Therefore, for many people, using mechanical aids that increase cleaning efficiency and reduce both the time and skill demands of the tooth-cleaning process can be a suitable solution.
Various types of “electric” toothbrushes and other advanced tools for oral hygiene are available today. They operate on different principles, and their effect may not always be as significant as promised; some technologies may have undesirable side effects, such as increased abrasion or mechanical injury to the gums. In this context, it is optimal to choose a tool that is both effective and safe.
Sonic Toothbrush and Its Effectiveness
In the past, many studies have examined the efficacy and safety of high-frequency toothbrushes. Subsequently, de Jager et al. conducted an extensive meta-analysis of these studies. After examining available databases and categorizing studies based on criteria comparing manual toothbrushes with sonic toothbrushes in generally healthy individuals over 1–3 months of observation, a total of 18 clinical studies involving 1870 participants were included in the analysis. Their results demonstrated that high-speed sonic toothbrushes exhibit better plaque removal and a reduction in the incidence and severity of gingivitis.
Technology in Interdental Space Care
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